The present invention relates to a self-cleaning oscillation conveyor for deburring, dedusting and upwardly conveying small parts, in particular pills and tablets. Oscillation conveyors without self-cleaning means are known and in the production process of tablets are arranged directly after the tablet presses in order to upwardly convey the tablets and at the same time to deburr and dedust these so that they may subsequently be led to a packaging machine. Such oscillation conveyors have a helical path of a stainless steel channel which winds upwards around the outer wall of a standing tube and by way of an electromagnetic oscillation unit together with this tube may be set into a vibration with a horizontal and vertical component. A casing tube of steel or plastic is pushed over the outer side of the helical conveyor channel. The casing tube according to length often has a recess over roughly a third of the circumference of the casing tube, into which a plexiglass window is applied so that the conveying of the small parts may be observed. The tablets hop upwards on the helical path as a result of the vibration of the channel. By way of a suction device one may suction away the dust from the region over the helical path between the central tube and the casing tube through the central tube, which for this is provided with slots or is perforated.
The disadvantage of such an oscillation conveyor is that although the dust which arises on burring is largely suctioned away, certain contamination however remains on the walls of the central tube and of the casing tube as well as on the conveyor channel of the oscillation conveyor. If small parts are to be successively conveyed with the apparatus, thus tablets of various types with various active ingredients, then the inner walls of the oscillation conveyor must be thoroughly cleaned before each resetting to a new tablet type. Until now this cleaning has been effected by hand. Firstly the casing tube must be removed in order to create access to the conveyor channel and to the central tube. All dust-contaminated parts may then be rubbed off with a damp cloth, specifically the perforated conveyor channel, the outer side of the central tube as well as the base and lid of the conveyor space. Finally the inner side of the disassembled casing tube is cleaned. All parts are then dried and are subsequently put together. This cleaning work is time-consuming and laborious. Furthermore the apparatus is out of action during the cleaning and one loses time in the further processing of the manufactured small parts or tablets. Other installation parts in the production and packaging process remain still until the cleaning has been completed.